[PRP] Face Down (Horace, Ollie & Eli)

[saedusk]

Something in Eli's back popped as he stretched just inside the doorway of their court-provided guest room. It was a decent size, smelled clean, looked clean. Overall, pretty nice. "Not a bad room," he commented generically, gathering the clothes he'd been returned in his arms. "Nice of them to wash everything for us."

Well, everything but Horace's shirt, rest in peace. At least it hadn't been the underwear.

The very next instant he seemed to reconsider his choice, though, refolding and setting everything back down save his own underwear. Continuing to go commando seemed unnecessary. "Honestly, as much as I'm not fond of this drab robe, it's probably a little more comfortable to sleep in than jeans."

Eli's back was to Ollie and Horace. It all felt so... oddly normal after everything that had happened. Somehow, someway, it was so normal that it didn't feel right. "So..." he mumbled, sounding almost un-Eli-like in the process. "How are you two holding up?"

The Semblance of Unity

Melancholies

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Horace yawned, jaw cracking and loud. He found his underwear and shimmied it on underneath the robe. Then he cast the robe off. "Honestly, I will die if I keep wearing this robe." In this comfortable state of undress, he poked through the clothing, finding that some thoughtful fetch had provided him with a soft t-shirt. He yanked it on. Normally, at home, he'd sleep in nothing or just his boxers, but he wasn't alone here.

"I feel like we missed the burnt of action-y things while we were off doing stuff. Not that that's bad, though." He sighed and sat on the edge a bed that nearly rivaled his own in size. Reaching for a brush (thank ******** there was one on a bedside table), Horace began to untangle his hair, wincing as the brush caught on large knots. "Melany almost got her blood on that paper, but she didn't. I think Odal hates me - man looked like I'd kicked his puppy. And we almost ran out of time, but we didn't." His thoughts were kind of tiredly disjointed and it showed.

He patted the bed next to him. "C'mon. Sit down before you fall down, guys. Ollie, you've got soot in your hair, come here." Horace was going to brush both of their hair unless they hated it. The action just sounded soothing and he was tired and not thinking about whether it was appropriate or not.

melancholies

saedusk

 

[Melancholies]

Oliver was just kind of. Staring.

In the aftermath of everything, he felt utterly crushed and so so so ******** tired, more tired than he'd ever felt before in his life. He couldn't even comprehend the weight on his shoulders, and even with that pressure gone his chest felt oddly concave and bent at all the wrong angles. Elliot seemed fine though. Horace did too, mostly.

He'd only followed them out of necessity. Where else was he supposed to go? Home? He missed his cats terribly.

"I'm..." He looked at his hands—they were still clawed—and in the wake of realization that he was half shifted, he slowly returned to his far-less-furry form. "I'm..." He held his breath, but then exhaled. Without another word or another thought or any sort of attention to the robes he apparently hadn't changed out of, he just... went and laid face down on one of the beds. He didn't move.

saedusk

The Semblance of Unity

 

[saedusk]

"It's been a long day," Eli said, because what else did you say to thoughts like that? "Even if it doesn't feel like we won, well... we still did." It was easier when you had something like victory to cling to, at least if you were Elliot Labelle. If there was a goal, he could keep his sights set straighter. Now the only goal felt like making it to tomorrow.

With a small sigh, he sat down on the bed, mechanically reaching up to pull his hair out of the ponytail that wasn't even there. Force of habit, but he'd taken it out back when they'd switched into these robes. Hair ties probably counted as clothing and he hadn't wanted to take any chances.

At least we'll get to go home tomorrow... he thought, not realizing even slightly that his thoughts were broadcasting.

The Semblance of Unity

Melancholies

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Tomorrow if we get lucky, maybe. I'm not sure if they will do both the destruction and re-casting the same day." Horace hadn't even noticed Elliot hadn't said that aloud. He stood creakily, and walked over to pass the brush to Eli. Then he leaned over and tried to dust some ash out of Oliver's hair.

"Do you guys really wanna sleep in those robes?"

saedusk

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Ollie curled into a tight little ball. Like Horace, he didn't seem to notice that Elliot's words were internally rather than spoken aloud; his entire mind was a mess with magical qualia and strange sensations and awkward feelings. Elliot and Horace felt like they were close, but in a really unfortunate way, like they were smashed inside of his brain and curved against the inside of his skull. He wasn't sure he liked it. Maybe if he wasn't divided on so many other things he would, but right now it just added to the issue at hand. People had almost died, and though everyone remained alive, his deathsense had skirted around enough to make him sick.

It felt like he was being dragged in millions of different directions. "I don't care." He told Horace, "My head hurts."

This was followed by a tiny pathetic sound as Horace dusted his hair off. He was silent for a bout after that.

4:56... 4:55... 4:54... 4:53...

He hiccuped a little.

The Semblance of Unity

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

"Huh?" was Eli's response, one that sounded genuinely confused. Yet, even in front of people who already knew half (or more) of his confidence was fake, he had to save face. He went with it as if he had said something out loud, because maybe he had without realizing. It had been a long day.

"It's not the most uncomfortable thing I've ever slept in. It'll do."

He took the brush from Horace, but didn't look like he planned on brushing his own hair. At least not yet. As calm as he was trying to pretend like he was, Ollie's reactions were threatening to bring it all tumbling down. "Hey-" he started, but couldn't quite bring himself to finish as he brushed a hand over Ollie's shoulder.

The Semblance of Unity

Melancholies

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Horace snorted. Here he was, in boxers and a shirt, and the two of them were content to sleep in cult-y robes. Weirdos, but cute weirdos. His hand lingered on Ollie's head, then he heard it - the odd hiccup, then the counting. From the difference in tone, it was something he was thinking, not even aware he was essentially yelling it in his head. The stopwatch. His brow creased and Horace carefully clambered onto the bed.

"I'm going to touch you; is that okay?" He waited for a moment, then wrapped his arms around Oliver, pulling him up into his lap. Horace raised his eyebrows at Eli. C'mere, Ellie. Need you, too. Even his mental voice sounded tired. He could feel his own anxiety burbling at the back of his mind, but he cut it off for now. Horace would have to fall apart later. He held out one of his arms for Elliot, inviting him to scoot over with him so that they could form a kind of weird pile of humans. It'd be okay; he knew the touch was coming.

Reaching over, he grabbed one of the as-yet untouched shirts and draped the dark cloth over Ollie's head. "Oliver," he said softly. "We did it; we're okay." Does it hurt less if I talk like this? "Do you want us to get a fetch for your head?"

saedusk

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

There was a quiet meep as Oliver was pulled into the weird human pile, but he didn't seem to be resisting all that much. "S'fine..." He mumbled groggily, "Isn't a migraine."

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He sniffed a little bit, sort of half roused. "Don't you guys feel it?" His vision was darkened when the shirt covered his head, and he settled like any wild animal would when faced with fake-darkness, "Don't you guys... am I going crazy?" Oliver would usually let the unsettling sensation go, but he was hypersensitive to things entering his mind. "There's you—" He poked Horace, "And you—" He reached over to poke Eli, but he poked Horace again due to this newfound blindness. "You're both like, there. In the back of my head. There's so much stuff inside of my head..." He sighed a little, "People almost died. Everyone's just milling around like it's fine but I felt it, I felt them almost die. 'N there was so much magic, and—"

He winced and curled inward again to hold his head.

"Sorry, sorry, thoughts are everywhere. There's—" so much, so much stuff. Where's my imitrex? Eli can we go home? I miss Chai, I miss Nosey, I don't—

His thoughts cut off abruptly as he tried to force himself into relative submission.

saedusk

The Semblance of Unity

 

[saedusk]

Making a human comfort pile wasn't the weirdest thing Elliot had ever done. Right now he didn't even want to think about the weirdest thing he'd ever done. Instead he crawled over at Horace's urging, tucking himself under his arm nice and close. One hand settled on Oliver's back, trying again to be as much relief as he could. For a second, anyway.

"Your imitrex...?" Had he even brought it? Despite the fact he'd said it wasn't a migraine, Eli felt compelled to reach under the nearest pile of clothes. They weren't even Ollie's, they were his own, but out came a small, travel sized bottle of ibuprofen. It rattled when he shook it, but it was obvious there were only a handful of pills left. When did...? he thought, then stopped worrying about it.

Oliver's thoughts were jumbled and frightening enough that Eli was willing to give him the ibuprofen if he wanted it. It wasn't migraine meds, but it might help.

"I... know what you mean," he finally said, looking sideways at Horace, then down to the lump where he knew Ollie's head was. "I sort of thought it... was just a side effect of having to focus harder together so we could destroy everything we did. But it hasn't gone away. You're still there... in the back of my head." And Eli didn't have nearly as many mental powers as Oliver did.

The Semblance of Unity

Melancholies

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Horace hugged Eli close, his other hand made small circles on Oliver's arm. He squeaked a little when Ollie poked him, covering it up with a cough. "I thought... I thought it was a side effect, too." Nugget was here, somewhere, sleeping up near the ceiling. It was kind of like that. "I can feel you both - like you're closer than would even be possible, you know? I don't... I don't hate it." But if Oliver or Eli did, they'd have to find a way to fix it.

"You're not crazy, Olliebee. Take it slow - you've seen so much, more than either of us can." He sighed. "It's not that everyone is fine; it's not that it's fine... people just find ways to bottle it up." Well, he thought, Preacher might be fine, but she was kind of weird. "One more day, and then we can go home." He hoped. Horace dropped his head to rest on Eli's shoulder.

"But for tonight, it's okay. We've got you." Are you holding up, okay? This was sent to Eli, a worried look crossing his brow. He wanted them both to be okay. Everyone needed time to decompress. He'd just do his later.

saedusk

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

It was like shaking a canister of cat treats, except in this case it was pills, but the reaction was about the same. Oliver perked up under the cover of the shirt, his hand reaching across Horace for whatever godly medication Eli had discovered.

"Oh." He was squinting at the label, his eyes growing bloodshot, "Ibuprofen... that's fine."

He was picking at the top of the container while everyone else spoke. "I just. I never noticed it before. I didn't notice it the first time we cast to destroy the rock, or—or the second time, when we destroyed Ezra's stuff." The cap finally popped up as he poured the contents into his hand. "S-So I dunno, I just..." Sigh. "I don't... hate it either though. It's reassuring almost. I mean, I like you both, so it's not invasive or intrusive or anything, it just... is. You know?"

There couldn't have been more than five or six pills collected in his hand. Rather than look around for something to wash the pills down with, he started to take them dry, one at a time.

"You know," He'd taken three of them when he paused to speak, "Well, Elliot knows. I told Elliot when we got the stone and everything, but I saw two visions." Oliver was sitting over the edge of the bed, his back turned towards them. "In the first one, we were all happy. Shiloh was happy too, with the Melany girl. They were studying or something, and we were just... hanging out at someone's wedding I guess. I dunno who. It doesn't matter." He kicked his feet.

"Wouldn't you guys have wanted that?"

The Semblance of Unity

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

Knowing what he knew, Eli didn't like the implications of Ollie's question. It sounded simple and harmless enough at first, but he recalled the whole 'half shifted and alone' side of the story from their trip to grab Ezra's belongings. If he and Horace were with an Oliver that wasn't this one, the one here and now, then it wasn't something Eli even wanted to risk.

"I'm happy with the way things are." Eli didn't sound the least bit hesitant to say so. "I may not be okay okay after everything that happened," it was as much an answer to Horace's question as it was an honest assessment of their situation, "but I'm not interested in chasing a vision when I've got what I want right here."

That included their weird back of the head loitering feeling mumbo jumbo.

"I like the both of you, too, you know."

The Semblance of Unity

Melancholies

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

He hesitated before speaking. "I... kind of like it... I dunno, I guess I can't explain it, but it's not bad. It feels nice." Horace sighed. "I guess, when we're done here - we should experiment. See if it's just because we're physically close right now, see if it fades, you know." Horace didn't really want it to fade.

"Yeah, but was that vision like... the right versions of us? Me, you, Eli... I like this combination." There were, presumably, a million different universes, and in the previous one, he hadn't even known Oliver. "Even if it was, I'm not going to change the now for it..." He wasn't sure how to say it, but he... wanted to stay like this.

melancholies

saedusk

 

[Melancholies]

"Well—I mean—" Oliver stopped mid sentence, his face screwing up with a weird emotion, and then it dropped. He went back to silently stuffing ibuprofen into his face, and once he was seemingly satisfied he went to mess with the provided clothes. "I dunno." He said finally, "I guess so."

He slipped into the clothes well enough, only taking off the robe when it was necessary. It fell to the floor gracelessly, pooled around his feet, but Oliver didn't seem to care so much in the moment. It was true that it was just a vision; who knew the validity of it, but there was still an underlying guilt, like he didn't deserve this, like he should've just worked harder in his native universe, as if all of this felt like a handout—

Or maybe he was allowed happiness. Maybe he should allow himself to relax, let his guard down, enjoy life and the people in it. Maybe it wasn't so wrong.

His head hurt.

His heart kind of hurt too.

"I think I'm just tired..." He was eyeing the spot where he was smashed against Horace before. I mean, he was allowed back in right? "I like you guys too. It's weird having friends I can trust, but it's nice..." Oliver sighed, his eyes shutting for a moment, the veins visible in his eyelids as he took a seat on the edge of the bed. "I wonder if the other me was this predispositioned to worrying."

The Semblance of Unity

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